Don’t Fight Him!

 

I remember a several-day episode of major drama in the ballroom where we practice our dance ministry. Ladies would run out of the restroom screaming, and even gentlemen would gasp and lose their composure while leading a dance move. The source of all this commotion was a small lizard who had apparently sneaked in under the door and refused to leave, appearing unexpectedly at the most inopportune times.

Such lizards are common in Florida, where the sunlight, heat, humidity, vegetation and insects offer them an ideal environment. They blend well into their outdoor surroundings, where their intricately patterned colorations and interesting behaviors usually cause us to admire them as an example of God’s perfect and creative design (Genesis 1:24-25). But within the ballroom, this tiny intruder took on monstrous proportions and was described as “that humongous, nasty creature!”

My husband Richard opened the door and tried to show him the way, getting behind him and shooing him toward the threshold. But the little rascal obstinately stood his ground in the corner, then fled even further into the ballroom. Richard extended his hand to gently scoop him up and out the door, but he scurried away.

Finally Richard dropped an empty wastebasket upside down over the culprit so that he would be safely contained inside. His plan was to slide the wastebasket to the door, then to safely release the lizard outdoors where he could find the sunlight, water, and food he so desperately needed. But that rebellious lizard flung himself against the walls of the basket and even tried to escape through the bottom. In the resulting struggle, a tiny piece of his tail broke off, and when Richard finally brought him into the sunlight, the lizard seemed dazed and exhausted by his journey, resting peacefully in his hand for a moment before leaping to freedom.

“It would have been a lot easier on him if he hadn’t fought me the whole way,” Richard said.

It made me wonder how many times God says the same thing about us. Like Lot (Genesis 13:12-13;19) and Samson (Judges 14-16), we sometimes leave the provision of His presence to stray into places and situations where we don’t belong. Outside His will, we no longer fit harmoniously into the order He has designed for us as members of His body (Romans 12: 4-5; 1 Corinthians 12). Instead, we disrupt the peace and fellowship of others. We cut ourselves off from His life-giving love, safety, and blessings (Philippians 4:19), and strike out on our own as if we could supply our own needs once separated from His nourishing care (John 15:5).

But thankfully, God loves us too much to leave us in our desperate predicament (Isaiah 54:7-10; Luke 15:4-6). When we were His enemies, rebelling against His authority and even against acknowledging His existence, He pursued us to get our attention (Romans 5:8-10; James 4:4) and to show us His love (1 John 4:19).

Fighting God is pointless, for one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10). How much better to submit to His will now and live out His perfect plan for our life, than to realize too late the horrible mistake of rejecting Christ -- an error resulting in eternal damnation.

Saul of Tarsus was arguably the most zealous enemy of Christ, for he persecuted, imprisoned and even killed Christians (Acts 7: 57-Acts 8:1-3). Yet Christ appeared to Him on the road to Damascus, and Saul became Paul, entrusted by Christ with the mission of spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles and writing most of the New Testament (Acts 9:1-2).

Once we trust Christ as Savior and place our faith in His death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6), He will not let us stray far from His will without intervening to call us back to Himself. Like the father of the Prodigal Son, He will be waiting for our return with His arms outstretched in love (Luke 15:20).

The good life the lizard was seeking lay just outside the ballroom door, yet in his ignorance and confusion he ran further away from it, fighting Richard’s rescue attempts with every fiber of his being. When the lizard strayed from his outdoor home into the ballroom, he was so far out of his element that he was viewed as a nuisance and a menace, rather than as one of God’s awesome creatures playing his part in the harmony of nature. When we are out of God’s will, we cannot glorify Him because others see our sin nature, and not His light shining through us (Romans 8:5-9).

Why don’t we listen to God when He speaks to us in a still, small, voice (1 Kings 19:12) and just obey Him, stepping back on the path lit by His Word? (Psalm 119:105). Why do we run further away from His fellowship, and that of other believers, into the darkness of sin? (2 Corinthians 6:14-18) Why do we wait for Him to use drastic measures to get our attention (Hebrews 12:3-11), as He did with Jonah? (Jonah 1-4)

How much better to respond to God's quiet whisper than to wait for Him to smack us on the head with a 2 X 4! When He resorts to such extreme methods, we usually have only ourselves to blame.

I felt sorry for the lizard as my husband slid him to safety in the wastebasket, because he couldn’t see where he was or where he was going and had no idea of his destination or fate. God made us in His own image (Genesis 1:27) with the ability to love, trust, and obey Him, yet sometimes we lack faith (Hebrews 11:6). We panic and fight back like the lizard, which only makes our situation worse.

When we can’t see Him at work and can’t hear His voice, we may think that He has abandoned us or that He no longer cares enough to see us safely home. Yet He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). 

Once we are His children and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35), and nothing can pluck us out of the double grip of Jesus and the Father (John 10:28). We cannot go where His love cannot rescue us (Psalm 139:1-12), and if we take even the smallest step on the journey home to Him, He will run to us with open arms (Luke 15:20).

Even if we can’t understand how He will see us through our distress, we should trust in His love and in His ability to bring about His perfect will for our lives (Romans 8:28). Don’t fight Him – trust Him!

Psalm 19:13: Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins.

“It is as if [David] said, ‘Keep me back, or I shall rush headlong over the precipice of sin.’ Our evil nature, like an ill-tempered horse, is apt to run away. May the grace of God put the bridle upon it, and hold it in, that it rush not into mischief. What might not the best of us do if it were not for the checks which the Lord sets upon us both in providence and in grace!
C. H. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, March 16

© 2012 Laurie Collett

Reposted from the archives, edited and expanded

Eden’s Three Lands: God’s Justice, Mercy and Grace

As with Havilah, the other two lands of Ethiopia and Assyria comprising the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:11-14) also demonstrate how Holy God deals with man’s sin, not only with deserved justice, but with undeserved mercy and grace. When man repents and prays to God, He restores what was lost.

Ethiopia was the home country of Moses’ wife (Numbers 12:1), causing Moses’ siblings Aaron and Miriam to criticize him. Evidently they thought the Ethiopians were inferior to the Jews and unworthy of marrying into their family. In addition to their prejudice, they were guilty of coveting Moses’ favored position with God and of pride in thinking they were as fit as Moses to be God’s spokespersons (v. 2).

God punished their sins by summoning them to stand before Him (what a terrifying thought to be called on the carpet by our Creator!), verbally chastising them, and striking Miriam with leprosy (v. 4-10). But when Aaron confessed his sin, and Moses and Aaron begged God to save Miriam (v. 11-13), in His mercy He let her return to the camp, presumably healed, after seven days (v. 14-15).

The Ethiopians, Lubims and Sukkiims followed king Shishak of Egypt in the attack against Jerusalem, which came as part of God’s judgment for the disobedience of evil king Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:1-5). To appease His holy and justified wrath, God allowed the attackers to take the fenced cities of Judah, to enslave the Hebrews and to plunder their treasure. Shishak took spoils of the treasures of the house of the Lord; the treasures of King Solomon's house; and the shields of gold which Solomon had made (v.4-9).

But when the Hebrew king and princes heard God’s judgment delivered by Shemaiah the prophet, they humbled themselves before God and praised Him for His righteousness (v. 5-6). In His mercy, He spared their lives, gave them some deliverance, and vowed not to pour out His anger on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak (v. 7).

The Ethiopians continued to war against Judah, but during the reign of good king Asa, who prayed to God, obeyed and served Him (2 Chronicles 14:2-7,11), God smote, overthrew, and destroyed the Ethiopians (v.12-13).

Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, joined with Assyria in warring against the Israelites, causing the Hebrew king Hezekiah to mourn that day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy (2 Kings 19). But in answer to Hezekiah’s prayer, God kept His promise to save the faithful remnant of His people, to defend the city against the king of Assyria, and to kill 145,000 Assyrian soldiers before they even left their camp.

The people of Assyria were enemies of Israel used by God as an instrument of judgment against the people of God for their disobedience not only in Hezekiah’s day (2 Kings 18:11-17; Isaiah 36), but also in the time of king Hoshea, Jeroboam and Menahem (2 Kings 15, 17). The Assyrians were a bad influence on God’s people, seducing them to worship false gods. Scripture metaphorically describes Israel’s disloyalty to God, calling the Assyrians her lovers, described as desirable, young, renowned horsemen, who were captains, rulers, or great lords (Ezekiel 23:5-23).

Yet God in His mercy could even use the Assyrians for the good of His faithful people. The children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites showed their obedience to God by dedicating His newly built temple of God; making offerings at the dedication; and setting the priests for God’s service. The children of the captivity showed their obedience by keeping the passover; separating themselves from the heathen; and keeping the feast of unleavened bread (Ezra 6:16-22).

In return, the Lord showered them with His grace. He made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God. (Ezra 6:22).

Assyria’s capital was the wicked city of Nineveh, an exceeding great city of three days' journey (Jonah 3:3). When Jonah disobeyed God by refusing to preach in that den of iniquity, God’s judgment was to allow him to be swallowed up by a great fish and remain in its belly three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17). Once Jonah offered repentance, prayer, and thanksgiving to God, the fish vomited Jonah onto dry land (Jonah 2).

God again commanded Jonah to arise, go to Nineveh, and preach. God spared the Assyrian capital when they fasted, cried out to God and repented, showing His great mercy, grace and redemption even to His worst enemies (Jonah 3).

The one whom the Bible calls “the Assyrian,” suggested by some commentators to be Gog or even the Antichrist, is the rod of God’s anger, and the staff of God’s indignation. He will be used by God in judgment against the people of His anger to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets (Isaiah 10:5-6).

And yet God promises to protect His faithful remnant from the Assyrian, when God’s indignation shall cease, and His anger in their destruction shall cease, and He shall stir up a scourge for the Assyrian (v. 26). God will remove the Assyrian’s load from His people’s shoulders, and will remove his yoke of bondage from their neck, and destroy his yoke altogether (v. 27).

At times God deals with the enemies of Israel by having them war against one another, as when Assyria leads Ethiopia and Egypt into shame, fear and captivity (Isaiah 20:4-5).  Prophecy tells of Ethiopia being allied with Egypt and Libya against Israel (Ezekiel 38:5; Daniel 11:43).

Ultimately, God redeemed His nation Israel using Ethiopia, Egypt and Seba as ransom (Isaiah 43:1-4), and gave her spoil from the labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans (Isaiah 45:14). But when Israel rebelled against God, He chastised them by saying they were like children of the Ethiopians (Amos 9:7).

These three lands in the Garden of Eden therefore foretell man’s sinful rebellion, God’s judgment, and ultimately God’s redemption. Not only did God protect His faithful, but He gave them victory in war, and provides for the redemption of all people who place their faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6).

God’s mercy, love and grace are so great that they extend even to His enemies whom He has judged, and to the foes of His chosen people Israel. God has even promised to bless Assyria, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance (Isaiah 19:24-25), for He knows that one day they shall all worship Him in the holy city of Jerusalem (Isaiah 27:13).

The Psalms foretold of even the Ethiopians stretching out their hands to God (Psalm 68:31). That prophecy was fulfilled when the Ethiopian eunuch Ebedmelech rescued God’s prophet Jeremiah from prison (Jeremiah 38:7-13) and when the Ethiopian eunuch witnessed to by Philip was saved and baptized (Acts 8:26-39).

The pagan nations, and those that curse Israel, have reason to fear God’s judgment (Ezekiel 30). Specific judgments for Ethiopia are great pain (v.4,9), falling by the sword (v. 5), and  messengers in ships causing fear (v. 9). But thanks to Jesus Christ, all those born in Ethiopia, or in any nation once fighting God, can now be reborn into the church of God and enter the glorious city of Zion (Psalm 87).

May we learn from Havilah, Ethiopia and Assyria that God’s mercy and grace are greater than all our sins, and may we believe, repent, and pray!

© 2015 Laurie Collett